eople which you represent, and give to your generous
government the assurances of that deep gratitude which we
feel but cannot express. We beg of you, sir, to accept this
humble evidence of the cordial sentiments which we entertain
both for you, your countrymen, and your Government, and
which are equally shared by the people which we represent

JOSE DE LA CRUZ GARCIAS,
(Signed) SIMON ROQUE,
FRANCISCO LUIS AUTAN."

Our author returned the visit, and gives us the following account of his
reception:

"The reader may be assured that I did not forget my promise
to the municipality of Subtiaba. A day was shortly
afterwards fixed for my visit, and I was received with great
ceremony at the cabildo or council chamber, where I found
collected all the old men who could assist me in forming a
vocabulary of the ancient language, which I had casually
expressed a desire to procure. It was with difficulty that
we could effect an entrance, for a half-holiday had been
given to the boys of all the schools, in honor of the
occasion, and they literally swarmed around the building. We
were finally ushered into an inner room, where the archives
of the municipality were preserved. Upon one side was a
large chest of heavy wood, with massive locks, which had
anciently been the strong box or treasury. A shadow fell
over Simon's animated face as he pointed it out to me, and
said that he could remember the time when it was filled with
"duros," hard dollars, and when, at a single stroke of the
alarm bell, two thousand armed men could be gathered in the
plaza of Subtiaba. But those days were passed, and the
municipality now scarcely retained a shadow of its former
greatness. Under the crown it had earned the title 'leal y
fiel' (loyal and true), and in reward of its fidelity it had
received a grant of all the lands intervening between it and
the ocean, to hold them in perpetuity for the benefit of its
citizens. And Simon showed me the royal letters, signed "Yo,
el Rey" (I, the King), which the imperial emperor had
thought it not derogatory to their dignity to address to his
predecessors in office, and notwithstanding his ardent
republicanism, I thought Simon looked at them with something
of regret. I inquired for manuscripts which